Wealth accumulation motives: evidence from the probate records of Ontario, 1892 and 1902

The wealth of male decedents using census-linked probate records from 1892 and 1902 is examined for evidence on saving motives. This data presents an opportunity to examine wealth holding and saving motives in an environment devoid of many of the features that can affect modern retirement, consumption and saving decisions. Evidence is found supporting the existence of a strategic bequest motive. This result occurs after controlling for the possibility of the demand for children rising with the level of wealth as well as the potential contribution to wealth accumulation that children made in agricultural economies. These results also suggest that while the presence of a bequest motive was real and significant, its ultimate contribution to wealth accumulation was relatively modest when compared to the impact of variables such as occupational status and literacy. Moreover, there appears to be some evidence supporting a transition in saving motives away from bequest saving and towards greater life cycle saving.

The antecedents and consequences of manufacturer–distributor cooperation: an empirical test in the U.S. and Japan

We develop a conceptual model for studying the antecedents and consequences of achieved and optimal levels of manufacturer–distributor (M–D) cooperation. We hypothesized that levels of market turbulence, competitive intensity, and the manufacturing firm’s strategic type (i.e., prospector, analyzer, or defender) affected the optimal level of M–D cooperation. We also hypothesized that the level of under- and overachieving the optimal levels of cooperation negatively affects firm performance. The conceptual model is tested using empirical data collected from 295 manufacturing firms in the U.S. and validated using data collected from 104 distributors in the U.S. We also collect data from 255 Japanese manufacturing firms and 98 Japanese distributors. The empirical results support the model’s hypotheses with only one unexpected finding: in the Japanese sample, overachieving the optimal level of cooperation has a greater negative effect on performance than underachieving. We conclude by discussing theoretical and managerial implications.

Playing in between: patent brokers in markets for technology

Here we argue that patent brokers do not only stay in between supply and demand of innovation, but play in between executing complex transactions and taking entrepreneurial risk. In doing so, they serve a support function to R&D managers of firms adopting various approaches to technological change. We discuss how economic and sociological theories explain brokerage and its existence. Our qualitative analysis of the current practice of patent brokerage in the United States finds some evidence in support of such arguments, and moreover helps us reach a taxonomy of brokerage. We conclude with our own proposition, suggesting that even in very dense environments, the bridging role of intellectual property intermediaries is that of market makers, who leverage their specific investment to play in between technology demand and supply.     

软件化航天测控接收机的组件调度方法

基于通用处理器的软件化接收机是航天测控接收机的发展方向之一,通过引入组件化处理方法可进一步提高软件化接收机的灵活性和软件可重构能力。信号处理的实时性是软件化接收机的基本要求,信号处理组件调度的任务是决定组件的激活时机和执行所在的处理器,是影响实时性的关键因素。为了解决组件的激活时机问题,提出了基于动态数据流驱动的组件激活方法。为了提高非实时操作系统上的组件调度实时性,提出了基于动态优先级的软实时调度策略。实验表明,上述方法在中央处理器（Central Processing Unit,CPU）核心数小于组件数的条件下,能够明显提升处理实时性。     

目标管理在生产企业的应用

随着信用社会的到来,我国绝大多数竞争性行业的企业都面临"销售难、收款更难"的双重困境.适度的应收账款,是企业适应市场竞争、扩大销售、节约存货资金占用和降低存货成本的需要.但过高比例的应收账款,导致销售收入的增长只能给企业带来账面利润,不能带来维持经营、扩大生产规模所必需的现金流入,使企业的营运能力和偿债能力下降.建立系统、有效的应收账款内部控制制度是企业加强资金周转,提高资金使用效益,保护财产的安全完整的重要手段.本文根据内部控制理论和应收账款内部控制的目标分析了应收账款内部控制的具体方法,目的是发现应收账款控制的薄弱环节进而加强企业应收账款的内部控制.     

Stochastic dominance and thick-tailed wealth distributions

Right-skewed and thick-tailed wealth distributions have been documented as an empirical regularity across space and time. A key mechanism for explaining these distributional features is proportional random growth. We investigate the comparative statics of a well-defined class of random growth models when allowing for stochastically ordered shifts in the wealth return process. An order-contingent monotone comparative statics property is identified, according to which pure increases in risk (e.g. higher volatility of capital returns) foster top wealth concentration whereas first-order stochastically dominated shifts in the return process (induced by e.g. proportional capital income taxation) rather lower inequality at the upper end of the distribution. Our analysis points to the potentially ambiguous effects on top wealth inequality of introducing or modifying capital income tax treatments in the presence of stochastic returns.     

Exploring additional determinants of fixed broadband adoption: policy implications for narrowing the broadband demand gap

Using data from the survey ‘Aspects of daily life’ conducted on Italian individuals in 2014 by the Italian Institute of Statistics, we propose new evidence on the factors that encourage the adoption of fixed broadband, a topic relevant for the reduction of the so-called broadband demand gap. We estimate a probit model through the two-step Heckman procedure for the selection bias, and find that, besides the already studied socio-demographic determinants, Internet-capable devices other than personal computers, as well as recreational (essentially video contents) and cloud-related uses of the Internet, have a relevant positive role. Policies aimed at fostering the diffusion of smart homes and more generally of the Internet of things at the residential level might be very effective in favouring fixed broadband adoption, provided that the network be neutral, not discriminating between data based on their contents and/or the destination device, and that possible foreclosing behaviours in the access to (premium) contents be properly and promptly addressed.     

Credence Goods,Misleading Labels,and Quality Differentiation

Due to differences in information disclosure mechanisms, consumer misinformation about the quality of many credence goods is more endemic at intermediate levels of the quality spectrum rather than at the extremes. Using an oligopoly model of vertical product differentiation, we examine how consumers’ overestimation of the quality of intermediate-quality products affects firms’ incentives to improve product quality. The firms non-cooperatively choose the quality of their product before choosing its price or quantity. Irrespective of the nature of second stage competition, Bertrand or Cournot, we find that quality overestimation by consumers increases profit of the intermediate-quality firm, and motivates it to raise its product’s quality. In response, the high-quality firm improves its product quality even further but ends up with lower profit. Overall, average quality of the vertically differentiated product improves, which raises consumer surplus. Social welfare increases when the firms compete in prices but falls when they compete in quantities.     

Targeted business incentives and the debt behavior of households

The empirical effects of place-based tax incentive schemes designed to aid low-income communities are unclear. While a growing number of studies find beneficial effects on employment, there is little investigation into other behaviors of households affected by such programs. We analyze the impact of the Texas Enterprise Zone Program on household debt and delinquency. Specifically, we utilize detailed information on all household liabilities, delinquencies, and credit scores from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Consumer Credit Panel/Equifax, a quarterly longitudinal 5% random sample of all individuals in the USA with a social security number and a credit report. We identify the causal effect of the program by using a sharp regression discontinuity approach that exploits the known institutional rules of the program. We find a modest positive impact on the repayment of retail loans, but also evidence of an increase in the delinquency rates of auto loans and in Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings.     

中国金融效率促进经济增长效应的区域差异及地方政府宏观调控的异质需求

把金融效率分为资金聚集效率和资金分配效率,采用2001—2015年中国八大经济区域的面板数据,实证检验了资金聚集效率和资金分配效率与经济增长的关系,分别验证了政府干预对上述相关性的影响。全国整体层面的检验结果显示:资金聚集效率对经济增长具有促进作用;资金分配效率对经济增长具有抑制作用。分区域检验结果显示:资金聚集效率和资金分配效率对经济增长具有不同的作用效果,且存在明显的区域差异。加入政府干预变量后的检验结果显示:地方政府影响了区域金融效率促进经济增长效应的释放,且这种影响同样存在区域差距。这表明,具有不同发展初始条件的区域对金融政策的实施和调控具有异质需求,地方政府应根据区域发展的实际需求,结合经济增长转型及政府职能转变,选择合适的金融领域实施相应政策,有效提高区域金融效率,支持经济长期良性增长。